Various styles of refrigerated and hot food merchandisers are used in supermarkets and other food stores for the display and storage of food products, including the type that employ hinged or pivoted glass front door or window panels for accessing the interior product zone of the merchandiser cabinet. Typically, such a glass panel comprises an insulated glass unit consisting of two or more glass panes that are sealed in spaced relation, and the unit is hinged to the cabinet frame for vertical opening movement on a horizontal axis or for side opening movement on a vertical axis. Insulated dual-glass units or the like are energy efficient in the operation of the merchandiser, but are relatively heavy and require sturdy and rugged cabinet framing and hinged mountings to support the weight of the glass unit and withstand various forces exerted thereon through continuous opening and closing usage. In longer merchandiser cabinets or multiple cabinet line-ups, it is accepted practice to use plural side-by-side front glass panels that are supported at their adjacent edges by intermediate supporting ribs or frame members. In commercial merchandisers, the finished appearance of the glass front unit is of high importance in enhancing the display and sale of the food products, and intermediate structural ribs block the view of the product zone and interfere with the free access to the interior for stocking and servicing the merchandiser case.
In the past, glass front panels have employed peripheral metal support frames to add strength to the outer edges of the glass panes and facilitate hinged mounting of the units. In refrigerated cabinets, such door or window panels generally require electrical heaters and other insulation to obviate condensation build-up on such framing and moisture migration and clouding between the glass panes. Also, the exposure of large hinges has been esthetically displeasing, and even the use of protective framing at the peripheral edges of the glass units detracts from the appearance.
Artwohl et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,274 discloses a deli-style merchandiser that approaches some of the prior art problems of a glass front unit, but uses a two-piece metal clamp that extends along the upper marginal edge of the double glass window panel and clamps across both glass surfaces at the outer peripheral glass margins. The outer exposed metal clamp member is enlarged to cover the hinging space between the glass unit and the cabinet.
Kaspar et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,618 and its parent U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,382 disclose a reach-in type merchandiser that purports to overcome a prior art styling problem of glass front units to achieve a more "Continental" look. Thus, a peripheral masking on the outer glass pane obscures the underlying metal support frame, but the frame still extends outwardly around the outer glass periphery and is a visible presence.
Bockwinkle U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,043 also discloses a reach-in merchandiser that utilizes a structural foam framing edge for a glass unit in lieu of an exposed metal frame to thereby obviate condensation problems, and also utilizes a conventional top and bottom door pivoting arrangement.